West Bloomfield Man Sentenced in $3.4M Medicare Fraud

WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI – A West Bloomfield man who swindled the government out of $3.4 million in fraudulent Medicare billings funneled through his home health care company was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 57 months in prison, prosecutors said.

Mohammad Rafiq, 49, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh to make restitution in the amount of $3,471,906.02 and to forfeit the same amount, according to a news release.

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Rafiq, who owned and operated Perfect Home Health Care, pleaded guilty to health care fraud, admitting that from February 2009 to November 2013, he paid physicians and patient recruiters to refer Medicare beneficiaries to his company and sign medical documents that falsely certified they required home health care, the government said.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Chicago Region investigated the case, brought by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 2,300 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for over $7 billion.

In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.